The Paris DYNAMO Fellowship Programme

Project Information

FP-DYNAMO-PARIS

Grant agreement ID: 101034407

DOI

10.3030/101034407

EC signature date 19 April 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 2 795 280,00

EU contribution

€ 1 397 640,00

Coordinated by

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FP-DYNAMO-PARIS (The Paris DYNAMO Fellowship Programme)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

FP-DYNAMO-PARIS will tackle fundamental scientific questions in the field of energy conversion using interdisciplinary approaches. Over the decades, this field has encompassed increasingly large applications from agronomy to medical research and now climate impacts on the biosphere. These new research themes bring new challenges of increasing urgency, requiring the training of a new generation of researchers capable of leading scientific progress in such complex and interdisciplinary fields.

The DYNAMO consortium is structured to answer this challenge by providing young researchers with a human environment that will foster their growth as future leaders. This will be done through an almost century-long interdisciplinary tradition, combined with strong links to international and non-academic partners. FP-DYNAMO-PARIS goal is to bring new conceptual advances in environmental and health sciences, by recruiting promising experienced researchers (ERs) with a selection process combining excellence and inclusivity; by providing them with a professional opportunity to further their scientific projects, personal skill development and networking opportunities to reinforce their profiles; and by allowing them to face the challenges and requirements of their future career positions when they have research teams of their own.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Firstly, there was a significant risk of not having enough applicants. To limit this risk, we advertised job positions on the Euraxess portal, the Labex Dynamo website, LinkedIn, Twitter and within our scientific distribution networks. This enabled us to reach almost 2,000 people. After the calls, we were able to fill all but one position.

We were careful to ensure a balance between the gender and countries of the people recruited, as well as the selection panel.
On the jury, we had an excellent ratio of 10/12 women to men and 10 countries represented.
For postdocs recruited, there is a slight imbalance in favor of women, with a ratio of 6/13. However, we managed to represent 14 countries out of the 19 recruited.

We also wanted to ensure that these postdocs had sufficient and appropriate career development support.
We have established a development plan that includes regular monitoring by their supervisor, management training, and career days where professionals from academia and industry are invited to help them see things more clearly. Feedback on these schemes has been excellent.

Moreover, we were committed to providing these young researchers with top-level training in the various technologies used in our research projects.
Once hired, the postdocs were given free access to the research platforms and the opportunity to be trained by the platform engineers. We also offered them the full range of CNRS training courses to enhance their skills in areas such as management and project management.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We anticipate that by the end of the program each of the post-docs will be in a position to write a paper describing their key findings and answer to grants applications.

The primary societal impact will an improvement of our fundamental understanding of the key cellular process of gene expression and (solar) energy conversion in different organisms. The broader societal impact in terms of understanding antibiotic resistance mechanisms, bio-inspired green energy and neurologic / metabolic diseases will follow in due course and will undoubtedly involve a wider contribution from the scientific community involved in this area of research.

The new generation of researchers trained will be integrated in a leader position in academic or industrial communities. They will have a strong expertise on state-of-the-art techniques and complementary soft skills in management and ethics.

Scientific discussions at IBPC